Chris Nelson is having some fun today and just did a nice job reporting on White House Spokesman Scott McClellan not correcting or modifying Condoleeza Rice’s assurances to Senators that they need not worry about Bolton’s behavior — as she would “supervise him.
Sources in the White House tell TWN that there is genuine shock and disbelief among the Executive Office ranks about the difficulties of getting Bolton confirmed for the U.N. One source reported that “this all seems so unprecedented.
Lynne Cheney, the Vice President’s wife, has spoken incessantly about the need to provide good moral examples for children and teens in America. But now her husband and others are arguing that Bolton-style bullying “is just what the U.N. needs.” I can see the ads being developed now.
Ron Brownstein’s survey of today’s Bolton drama is very lucid and fair. He outlines the importance of Voinovich’s move, the angst in nearly every other political faction, and the willingness of the White House to do nearly anything to win. TWN wants the White House to do nearly anything to win.
President Bush should be asking the question of who on his team let the Battle over John Bolton escalate into a proxy battle over White House influence. This should be about bigger issues. In fact, Senator Voinovich framed this debate brilliantly and eloquently.
Senator Lugar is not going to allow a vote on John Bolton in the Committee. We will get no 9-9 tie because Lugar won’t allow a loss, or stalemate. What will happen shortly is that Lugar will move that the committee report the nomination to the floor without recommendation.
Voinovich has created the political space for defeatist-tilting Democrats to buck up and for Bolton-offended internationalist Republicans to oppose Bolton. If this comes out of Committee shortly with a 9-9 vote, we will have even more time to tell countless troubling vignettes about Mr. Bolton’s recklessness with national security intelligence.
Voinovich just said that “John Bolton is the poster child for what someone in the diplomatic corps should not be.” Someone notify David Brooks that the tide has yet again turned.
George Voinovich, like Barry Goldwater once articulated so well, believes that conservatives must maintain a solid connection to their conscience. He is voting against Bolton’s nomination. We are now at 50/50. Everything this weekend was psychological warfare by the White House — trying to convince the opponents to Bolton that they had already lost.
I have no idea what George Voinovich is about to conclude in the Bolton hearings, but already, the language he has used to frame the “bigger picture” at stake is EXACTLY the kind of discourse we should be having.
